Design and Programming Charrette at Mendelssohn Hall Feb. 20

A Design and Programming Charrette, hosted by Gary W. Anderson Architects, Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center Board of Trustees and Dr. Alan Brown, capital campaign manager, will take place from 8 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, Feb. 20, at Mendelssohn Hall, 406 N. Main St. (the former First Presbyterian Church).

Brown was most recently the executive director at Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford.

With the acquisition of the former First Presbyterian Church, Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center is now a three-building “campus” that includes a spacious parking lot. With a prominent downtown Rockford location on the “Cultural Corridor,” between the Riverfront Museum Park and the Coronado Theatre, Mendelssohn is poised to become a vibrant Community Center and School for the Arts.

A “Charrette” may refer to any collaborative session in which a group of individuals draft ideas and solutions for a project.

Mendelssohn’s Executive Director Beverly Broyles hopes community members will come and contribute their ideas as to how this new venue can be used to offer new opportunities in the arts for individuals of all ages.

“We want to explore visual, performance and music arts as possibilities for the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center Campus,” Broyles explained.

Since 1884, the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center, a nonprofit organization, has been a source of exciting, personal, interactive music experiences for the residents of northern Illinois. Mendelssohn PAC serves the community with a range of concerts, youth music programs and performing ensembles for all ages.

The Mendelssohn PAC campus includes the Emerson House, Mendelssohn Hall and the Starr Center, 415 N. Church St.

Charlotte’s Web for the Performing Arts became a division of the Mendelssohn PAC in 2012. The Rock Valley Children’s Choir and Kantorei: The Singing Boys of Rockford are Mendelssohn PAC’s partners in residence. Visit www.mendelssohnpac.org. To RSVP for the Design and Programming Charrette, call (815) 964-9713 or e-mail bbroyles@mendelssohnpac.org.